IBM’s Bluemix Wins Ovum and Aims to Win Developers

A large focus for the marketing of hybrid clouds depends upon gaining the approval and support of developers, particularly for creating applications and technological customization. Approval and awards from analysts and firms can only help vendors secure developers’ attentions.

IBM received some of the best possible marketing from one firm, Ovum. Ovum gave high approval marks for IBM’s software development capabilities, particularly for hybrid cloud construction. In fact, Ovum has named IBM as a market leader in three areas that are pivotal to hybrid cloud environments: DevOps release management, application lifecycle management (ALM) and Agile project management.

What has been a major component of IBM’s success has been its platform-as-a-service (PaaS) Platform, Bluemix and IBM’s utilization of the acquired UrbanCode. Bluemix’s environment has created a large portfolio that impressed Ovum as well as a platform that supports a large range of management tools. IBM’s development toolbox includes more than 140 APIs and services that can challenge some of the most competitive technologies today, including cognitive, DevOps, Blockchain,
Internet of Things, IBM’s Watson, security, data analytics and more.

Launch on Bluemix

IBM already has a significant amount of success with developers and IT organizations; Bluemix has aided this by becoming the world’s largest public deployment of Cloud Foundry, which is helping the company transition established enterprises into the cloud without replacing IT infrastructure. Simultaneously, IBM is able to recruit and engage born-on-the-Web organizations looking to build cloud-native applications. By winning the business of both enterprise types, IBM is showcasing their appeal and diversification possibilities to potential clients.

In a statement given by Michael Azoff, a principal analyst at Ovum, “it is easy to see why IBM received such high markets in three separate areas.” Azoff acknowledged the work that IBM has already started: “We see IBM taking great strides to give companies the platform and tools they need to manage a variety of business challenges. Very few vendors we evaluated offer the broad range of capabilities, support and global reach that IBM provides.”

His statement continued: “By bringing to bear advanced tools and seamless integration with existing data and systems, IBM is definitely winning over the hearts and minds of developers. IBM’s decade-long leadership in application lifecycle management has made it uniquely qualified to solve multi-speed IT and product challenges in the enterprise.”

Bluemix Platform

IBM won out in all three Ovum Decision Matrix reports that evaluated about a dozen vendors on various criteria including technology features, ability to execute (sales, product fulfillment and support) and overall market impact. It seemed that Ovum favored single holistic solutions that were able to perform release management, orchestration, and automation, including continuous delivery and out-of-the-box integrations.

IBM DevOps products achieved among the highest scores in the report for the range of external integrations that augment UrbanCode and allow it to be fused into any platform from mainframe down to mobile to physical hardware and to cloud services. In addition, Ovum highlighted IBM’s Bluemix Garage Method as a great spend enhancer for DevOps.

Marie Wieck, the General Manager of Cloud Integration for IBM, released a statement that “tens of thousands of developers join Bluemix each week and that the platform boasts more than a million overall users.” Moreover, about 120,000 Bluemix-based applications are built each month.

Bluemix

“Ovum’s ranking of IBM as a leader for cloud developers further validates this momentum and highlights the agile, hybrid cloud environment that innovators are looking for,” Wieck added.

IBM has received other accolades in the hybrid cloud space. In January, other reports came out of Forrester Research and Synergy Research that also named IBM a leader in hybrid cloud management solutions. Additionally, these reports gave high praise to IBM for providing infrastructure for enterprises to establish focused processes in regulated, multi-speed IT environments across traditional, custom, or hybrid cloud setups.

IBM needs to be careful of that broad range of services and technological offerings though. Even though the mammoth has supported great technological evolution, the shift toward enterprise businesses and their forthcoming needs require both incredible, cutting-edge solutions and outstanding support. Maintaining the favor of developers and IT enterprises doesn’t just mean crafting unbelievable software and products, but more importantly, providing superior reinforcements and continuing to innovate what they offer.

As the adage goes: it is easy to be good at a small collection of things, but difficult to be good at everything. IBM needs to be careful to not topple the great tower of success they have built.

Lindsey Cobb

Lindsey Cobb, a Georgia native and former history major, is a technology researcher who is fascinated by past and future of technology. When she is not engrossed in the prophecy of science fiction stories, Lindsey is likely to be planning her next adventurous trip or petting every dog she meets. Contact Lindsey at [email protected]